How social media can ruin your brand

 

Having connected users and created wealth for numerous people the world over, social media remains one of the greatest things to evolve in our world, at such a time like this. There’s no doubt about that, except when it flips and becomes a really terrible thing. Social media is a great way to build up a brand or business, but it also has the capacity to tear down any brand just as quickly.

Can social media promote your business? Absolutely! But just as social media platforms can make a brand or business, they can also break one as well. It’s a slippery slope that every brand manager and business owner simply must be prepared to navigate with extreme care.

So how terrible could it be?

 Nothing really dies

Always remember this: with social media, nothing ever seems to die. Whatever goes on social media stays on social media years down the line. Once a thread or conversation starts, you’re going to be battling it or handling it forever. Even if you manage to put a particular topic behind you, it can resurface at any time.

Deaf ears

Social media engagement may seem more like the sole responsibility of your marketing team, but it is important for other departments to also be aware of what goes on in this space. Today, many customers simply turn to a company’s Facebook page for lodging their complaints and voicing their dissatisfaction. In addition, they also leverage many online forums to vent and share their bad experiences. Your customer service team needs to constantly go through these sources for information about customers’ experience, and address the issues, if any. Most importantly, your team should be trained to handle customer complaints with humility and grace, no matter what the complainant says. The slightest hint of irritation, or arrogance can backfire.

Ignored messages

We live in an age and time when not answering a direct message means “no” or “I’m not interested.” Although this needs to change, it would, of course, take some time and you don’t want your brand to be the ‘scape goat’. In recent times,, I’ve been trying to respond to most tweets even if it means briefly explaining why I’m not interested. In a few cases, posters reply with a different idea or request. And, besides, there’s really no excuse to ignore people anymore. Worthwhile social media manager applications like Sprout Social make it easy to mark messages and track followers.

Abandoned website

While having an active social media network is important, you cannot possibly ignore your website – the online face of your business – in the bid to make the most of social media. At the end of the day, social media is a marketing tool, but unless what you are marketing (read website) is impressive, you can forget about securing conversions. First impression says everything.

 Selfish engagement

If your main mission on social media is only to consume value, you might as well end up being consumed. In as much as we’re all self-promoters at heart (some more than others), we must learn to create a balance so as not to cut across of a selfish on social media. When you only you’re your company news, personal info, and career highlights, you are creating a stream that is not only a bit dull but is downright narcissistic. The best posters are not posers. My advice: Post and retweet helpful information, reply as much as you can, and return the favour to your most loyal followers.

Unorganised posts

I have realised that a scheduled approach to Twitter and Facebook updates works best. That’s why Apps like Hootsuite allows you schedule posts to space them apart a bit. When you post a quick succession of links, people feel inundated and the content is lost in the rush. I’ve also noticed that, when there’s a flurry of posts, there is often a long period of inactivity. We know when someone posts several updates in a row that they’re too busy. That seems to confuse followers, who like to see a steady stream of informative info.

Grammar freaks

As long as we are human, we all are susceptible to making some mistakes, once in a while. But there seems to be a disproportionate number of armchair quarterbacks on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and LinkedIn than anywhere else who are only there to amplify your wrongs. An individual can use abbreviations and butcher spellings for the sake of word counts, but try it as a business, and you immediately lose credibility.

Convoluted management

If you’re trying to manage social media accounts, it can be a convoluted nightmare as far as structure, management, and organisation are concerned. The larger your online presence, the more problems you can have trying to keep your accounts straight.